Zoe Girl
2-17-11, 10:06am
I was really nervous but I am nor sure why. There were 3 of us running it and 2 of us are fairly new to this program. That makes some things easier and others harder. We had an ice breaker planned and an activity at the end (secretly designed to help me see how my different sites are working). Now before you say how much you hate staff meetings with games, our jobs are to play with and provide enriching opportunities for kids so we need to practice playing as professionals. I used a kids buzz words game and it was pretty fun, everyone ended up laughing (except maybe my one staff member who said she doesnt like the games, they are boring).
I got to talk a little over 1/3 the time, handle a few tricky things and then do the activity that was my idea at the end of the meeting. One thing I found out is that out of all the tasks my schools are supposed to do every month they are not doing them, and are not always really aware of the list. We gave them a list of what to turn in every month and we are now picking it all up instead having it filed at the site. One issue is the monthly nurse visit, some sites are not doing it because they have no kids on medication. So i think I was able to speak on that well with a suggestion from my supervisor.
So my thing at the end. Our staff should be doing what we call transitions, you have a group of kids waiting to wash hands or use the bathroom and we don't just let them stand and fidget. There are games and questions and things we do in order to keep them occupied and working as a group. I had each school get up and demonstrate one transition with a teacher and the rest of the staff being students. Well I can tell which sites are not doing transitions at all, and I already knew from observation. This was easier and made me less of the new boss who comes in with a harsh demeanor. Now I have to get all the required things from my sites, improve the transitions, support some more focused activities and basically make us look awesome for our grants!
I got to talk a little over 1/3 the time, handle a few tricky things and then do the activity that was my idea at the end of the meeting. One thing I found out is that out of all the tasks my schools are supposed to do every month they are not doing them, and are not always really aware of the list. We gave them a list of what to turn in every month and we are now picking it all up instead having it filed at the site. One issue is the monthly nurse visit, some sites are not doing it because they have no kids on medication. So i think I was able to speak on that well with a suggestion from my supervisor.
So my thing at the end. Our staff should be doing what we call transitions, you have a group of kids waiting to wash hands or use the bathroom and we don't just let them stand and fidget. There are games and questions and things we do in order to keep them occupied and working as a group. I had each school get up and demonstrate one transition with a teacher and the rest of the staff being students. Well I can tell which sites are not doing transitions at all, and I already knew from observation. This was easier and made me less of the new boss who comes in with a harsh demeanor. Now I have to get all the required things from my sites, improve the transitions, support some more focused activities and basically make us look awesome for our grants!